Abstract

The change in open-circuit voltage of a SiC diode betavoltaic cell in response to temperature was used to sense temperature. A linear sensitivity of was obtained from . This was achieved with only of active nickel-63 as the source, giving a short circuit current of , a low-enough activity for civilian applications. The measured sensitivity of was lower than the predicted from the theory. The shunt resistance of the betavoltaic cell was used to explain the lower sensitivity.

Received 12 June 2007Accepted 10 July 2007Published online 02 August 2007

Acknowledgments:

This work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) under Contract No. W314P46-04-1-R002, and the direction of contract monitor John Evans. The authors would like to thank Christopher Thomas for the material used in this study. They would also like to acknowledge Barry Butterfield for all his assistance. This work was conducted in part at the Cornell Nanoscale Facility (CNF).